Ah, Galicia, land of delights

A lovely very short 14km walk today. Down into the valleys, along typical Galician lanes, through close settled villages where life is so much softer than up in the mountains. Today I saw roses everywhere and was reminded of my dear friend Catherine, who loved them. The rose photos are for her.

I and my walking companions could not go past this extraordinary house for tonight’s accommodation - it is like sleeping in a museum. Built in 1776 it stayed in the same family, none of whom ever threw anything away, and one of whom became a minister under Franco. He restored the house luxuriously and collected even more extraordinary objects. Eventually it passed out of that family. It is now owned by a man from Philadelphia who fell in love with it while walking the Camino and bought it lock stock and barrel (and tortoise shells, and masks from Guatemala, chess sets from China, elephant tusks, knives from Borneo, carvings from Japan, etc, etc). The wine collection alone is huge - I only got a glimpse of the cellar - with racks and racks of dust covered bottles.Læs mere